ECHOES

With flu season in full swing and the   coronavirus spreading rapidly throughout China, it's more important than ever that people take precautions to stay healthy. Officials in China   have confirmed more than 6,000 cases   of the respiratory illness and 132 deaths, and there have been five confirmed cases of the disease in the United States. As for the flu, there have been at least 15 million American cases this season  as of Jan. 18 , including 8,200 deaths — 54 of which were pediatric deaths. According to the   Centers for Disease Control , one of the best ways to protect yourself from these illnesses is to wash your hands often, and with the right technique. When your hands are clean, you can prevent germs from spreading from one person to another. To successfully wash hands, follow these five steps recommended by the CDC. First, wet your hands with clean, running water — warm or cold. After turning off the tap, apply soap to your hands and rub t...

The Meeting Episode Two It’s been more than a week now since we have been friends, and really it was my best moments in life, I always laughed out seriously, mainly because she was so funny and speaks pigin english more often than any other language, and waooo, she was superb with it. It was evening, she had forced me to see her back home, after a very raining and cold afternoon, we had to trek for about twenty to twenty-five minutes back to her house at Gbagada, another town close to Oworonshoki. Strolling with her is always interesting, so I always do love to see her home despite the fact that I still trouble her to force me before I agree to take the stroll. We were on the footbridge linking Oworonshoki with Gbagada on the Iyanaoworo  Ogudu express road, when she asked me, Sam, do you believe in love” as she held my hands so closely, I took a quick look at her and replied, “yes I do, my mum loves us all, so does my dad, I love you, seeing you all happy makes me so happy a...

I’ve always relied on instinct when it comes to calculating risks, putting trust in people and making important business decisions. There are some things that can’t be summed up in a statistic, and this is when you need to use a bit of intuition. Image from Adam Slama On the  Strive Challenge  this year, I had an interesting conversation on the topic with the team, who have all followed incredible careers across many different sectors – from business and science to aerospace engineering and medicine. We were discussing how decisions are becoming more and more data-driven, as technology and artificial intelligence advances. However, as we rely more and more on analytics to make our decisions, we’re losing touch of our human instinct and we’re taking human reasoning out of the equation. We all agreed on the danger this presents and the importance of looking at every decision with a human lens. Creativity, problem solving, reasoning and...

From email scams to oil spills and charlatan Pentecostal preachers, it's clear that Nigeria has something of an image problem. While the outside world's perception of Africa's most populous country hasn't always been overwhelmingly positive, there's plenty more to this nation than its unsavory associations. With its vibrant culture, sense of humor and adaptability, Nigeria has become the "Giant of Africa" in more ways than just population size. In honor of Nigeria's Independence Day on October 1, here are 10 of the many reasons why the  destination  one in five Africans call home stands out from the rest. You may be inspired to add Nigeria to your  travel  list: Traditional weddings In Nigeria, if you've reached your 30th birthday and are still unhitched, the elders will harass you down the aisle, which is why barely a week goes by without someone staging a traditional wedding ceremony somewhere. Weddings are a sacred part of cultur...